Cooking Dictionary Results

P

Periwinkle - a small sea snail served roasted, poached, or raw, with wine sauce.

Persimmon - small acidulous plum-like tool used to crush or pound food in a bowl with rough interior surface - the mortar.

Petit Four - a small cake, usually bite-sized, which has been frosted and decorated.

Petit Suisse - an unsalted, very rich cream cheese rolled in paper in a cylindrical shape. In France, it is treated as a dessert, and served with sugar and cream.

Phyllo - pastry dough made with very thin sheets of a flour-and-water mixture; several sheets are often layered with melted butter and used in sweet or savory preparations.

Pickle - to preserve in seasoned and/or flavored vinegar, brine or oil. This is common for vegetables, especially cucumbers, fruits and meats.

Pignoli - pine nuts.

Pilaf / Pilaff / Pilau - a rice dish in which the raw rice is first simmered in a shortening or butter, then cooked with water or broth, and sometimes meat, poultry, fish or shellfish.

Pimiento - a large, heart-shaped pepper with red skin and a sweet flavor; used in paprika and to stuff olives.

Pinch - the amount of a dry ingredient that can be held between the thumb and forefinger (sometimes referred to as a dash). The equivalent measurement is approximately 1/16 of a teaspoon.

Pine Nuts - a nut with a tangy flavor reminiscent of pine, used in Mediterranean dishes, and brought to attention recently by the spaghetti sauce called pesto pignoli.

Pineapple - a tropical fruit (Ananas comosus) with a spiny, diamond-patterned, greenish-brown skin and swordlike leaves; the juicy yellow flesh surrounds a hard core and has a sweet-tart flavor.